{"id":5693,"date":"2011-09-16T06:22:15","date_gmt":"2011-09-16T06:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parentingtoday.com\/anew\/?page_id=5693"},"modified":"2019-07-23T16:43:56","modified_gmt":"2019-07-23T23:43:56","slug":"learning-challenges-attention-mood-problems","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/childdevelopmentinfo.com\/learning\/learning_disabilities\/learning-challenges-attention-mood-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning Challenges in Attention and Mood Problems"},"content":{"rendered":"

By George Tucker, PhD
\nChild Psychologist\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"girl-moody\"<\/p>\n

When we come into the world, no one expects us to be able to control our attention span or our moods.\u00a0 That is relegated to our caretaker, usually the mother, and it is expected that the caretaker will anticipate the needs of the child and respond accordingly.\u00a0 The child will begin to learn that the world is a predictable place, and that certain behaviors result in certain outcomes. If they cry when\u00a0they are hungry, they will be fed.\u00a0 If they\u00a0cry when they are tired, they will\u00a0be rocked to sleep.\u00a0 The bases of learning to regulate our attention, concentration, and mood are developed during the early months of life.\u00a0 Lo and behold, after a few short months or years,\u00a0predictable routines will result\u00a0in the development of\u00a0regular eating and sleeping cycles,\u00a0and the child and parents will live happily ever after.<\/p>\n

\"boy-moody\"<\/p>\n

If that happened, your child then went on to\u00a0develop elementary self-control.\u00a0 When they were not immediately fed when hungry, they either learned\u00a0to ask for food, or they learned to tell themselves\u00a0that dinner would be ready soon, and they could wait.\u00a0 This then morphed into\u00a0learning to delay gratification in other areas, such as waiting until after eating a meal to eat the sweet stuff called dessert, learning to take turns in games, or learning that\u00a0there are other people out there who also have needs, and that we can get\u00a0along better if we learn to cooperate and soothe ourselves rather than pushing to have our needs met immediately.<\/p>\n

If you are lucky enough to have a child who\u00a0has developed\u00a0the above skills in such a fashion, rejoice and be exceeding glad.\u00a0 However, if you\u00a0are still\u00a0reading this article, chances are something went wrong somewhere.\u00a0 What happens to children who have difficulty developing those routines, eating and sleeping at predictable times, learning to\u00a0 attend, concentrate, and moderate their moods in order to profit from those first days at\u00a0preschool or\u00a0Kindergarten?\u00a0 That is, what happens to children who have a learning disability in the areas of attention, concentration, or mood regulation?<\/p>\n

Much was written\u00a0in the years prior to 2000 regarding Attention Deficit\/Hyperactivity Disorder, and there are numerous resources available for\u00a0those problems.\u00a0 Excellent resources are The Parents’ Hyperactivity Handbook<\/em>, by Dr. David Paltin, who is one of our\u00a0staff writers.\u00a0 Russell Barkley’s work is also excellent.\u00a0 Numerous tools for diagnosing\u00a0and treating attention, concentration, and hyperactivity issues abound. Please see the list at the end of this article for additional\u00a0references and helpful resources.<\/p>\n

Since the year 2000, much\u00a0has also been written about the area now commonly referred to as\u00a0Juvenile Bipolar\u00a0Disorder.\u00a0 The work of Young and his colleagues has indicated that many youngsters who failed to respond to the usual interventions for AD\/HD such as behavioral and social skills programs, neurofeedback,\u00a0and medication may have been erroneously diagnosed as AD\/HD when they actually suffered from a mood disorder.\u00a0 The mood disorder could have been depression, or it could have been Juvenile Bipolar Disorder.\u00a0 A scale was developed whereby\u00a0children could be rated and given a probability of having Juvenile Bipolar Disorder.\u00a0 The scale, referred to as the Parent Young Mania Rating Scale (PYMRS), is still being developed and, to this writer’s knowledge, is not yet commercially available, but it can be used by a good clinician to help in diagnosis.<\/p>\n

Young and his colleagues also report that some children can have a mood disorder and AD\/HD, and this complicates treatment as well.\u00a0 However, knowing what you are dealing with can sometimes make the battle much easier to endure.\u00a0 Heredity can be a valuable source of information in making the final diagnosis here.\u00a0 A family\u00a0history of depression, Bipolar Disorder (formerly called Manic-Depressive Disorder), or alcohol\/substance abuse is often present in either the parents, aunts, uncles, or grandparents of the child. If the child is\u00a0adopted, this can make diagnosis more difficult.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0brief, if the usual methods of dealing with attention and concentration issues\u00a0have not proven successful, it may be time\u00a0to consider the possibility of\u00a0a mood disorder.\u00a0 Next month I\u00a0will have more about cognitive and behavioral\u00a0techniques, including developing more optimistic thinking, that can be used in a therapeutic attempt to increase a child’s regulation of their moods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Some children are easier to raise than others. \u00a0As children mature the develop various skills including intellectual, physical, social and emotional. \u00a0Each child has a different skill set with some definite strengths and unfortunately usually a weak are or two. \u00a0Dr Tucker discusses the skill know as mood regulation which has come under more study recently. \u00a0Parents will learn about mood regulation and how it affects parents and children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":5698,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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